1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for controlling the progression of a game in which a character disposed in a predetermined position within a game space delivers a ball object to a predetermined target position within the game space.
2. Description of the Related Art:
In a conventional baseball game, images of bases, players, and so on become small when a large field is displayed in its entirety on a display screen, making it difficult to advance the game, and therefore the display screen may be divided in two such that an image focusing on a ball is displayed on one of the display screens while an image focusing on a runner is displayed on the other display screen (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-170355, for example).
Further, smartphones, which are portable telephones that include touch panel display means and are capable of executing games, have become widespread in recent years. When a baseball game is executed on a smartphone, the display screen is extremely small, and therefore, when the display screen is divided as described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-170355, displayed images of players and so on are also small. Hence, a baseball game executed on a smartphone conventionally employs a format such as the following.
FIG. 12 shows an example of a screen of a conventional baseball game played on a smartphone. The example in FIG. 12 shows a state immediately after a shortstop fielder character CLS has caught a ground ball and thrown it to first base.
As can be seen in FIG. 12, the fielder character CLS is zoomed such that the first base does not fit within a field display area FA, and therefore the first base is hidden. As a result, a player has no idea how to input an operation for causing the ball caught by the fielder character
CLS to be thrown to the first base.
Hence, in a conventional baseball game played on a smartphone, an operating area HA in which the four bases are displayed compactly is provided below the field display area FA, and by touching one of four bases B displayed in the operating area HA, the player can input an operation to throw the ball.
However, with this conventional format, the player simply touches the base B and does not therefore experience a sensation of throwing the ball. A particular feature of a smartphone is that an operation can be performed by sliding a finger over the display screen, but in this conventional game, no thought whatsoever is given to this feature.